Self - evaluation 3

In this post I would like to share with you my final reflections connected with this year practice - my challenges/aims for the future and final conclusions.

CHALLENGES/AIMS FOR THE FUTURE

Generally, in my opinion most of the things during my practicum went well as I am well - organized, passionate and reflective teacher. Nevertheless, there are some areas which I want to improve. These are maintaining discipline as well as assessment. When it comes to discipline I have tried talking with students about their behaviour and its causes because I believe that this is one of the part of building relationship with pupils. Thus, I did not implement any motivational systems in the classroom - I would like kids to develop intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation in themselves. On the other hand, I am aware that in order to create good relations with children one needs a lot of time and regularity - it is very difficult to do it teaching students only once a week :( Therefore, I will not give up my beliefs in this area and in my own classroom I will talk with my pupils a lot because communication is crucial. In case it does not work with every student, I may try another methods. I have already thought about introducing simple motivational system like giving students hearts or smiles after the lesson or putting dry pasta in the jar during the class (when children behave well, cooperate with each other and teacher etc.) in order to fill all of it (or up to the drawn line) to the end of the lesson. But first I have to check this ideas in classroom and then decide if they are worth implementing. 

Regarding assessment, I have to dedicate more time for self as well as peer -  assessment. I want to know more about kids' understanding of my classes. What is more, I am afraid that if I do not do this, my students will not be aware of their learning process. I believe that giving children opportunities for self and peer - assessment will make them active participants of their own learning - they will know what they already understand and what are the areas they still need to work on. I have been thinking for some time how to do this and I have found some interesting ideas. For self -  assessment students can use traffic lights (they will put one the three signals up according to the level of understanding e.g. a task they are supposed to do) during the lesson or Marzano scale. Taking into account peer - assessment I think that assessing group projects or writing using scale prepared by me would be a nice solution.

I think that that in case of any problems in achieving these goals I would ask for help my mentor teacher or academic teachers who conduct courses connected with described areas.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

I think that during my practice I have accomplished all tasks that I was supposed to do. What went well is that I was able to plan interesting lessons which included attractive exercises and topics  - I can say this regarding pupils' involvement during the lessons. They have also shown a lot of positive emotions and gave me positive feedback after classes. What is more, in my opinion instructions that I have given before each task were simple and clear as well as reinforced by checking the understanding. Moreover, learners had a lot of opportunities to talk in English - they could have commented, shared their opinions  e.g.  after reading a book or they have presented the outcomes - they were really willing to do this :) What I am particularly proud of is that I built very good relationship with students. They were not afraid of me and treated as their teacher not a stranger. They have also come to me with their problems or shared their opinions and feelings with me. I am proud of this because as I wrote before the way that children react when they see us or how they communicate with us is crucial is teachers' work.

Would I do something differently? - YES. Definitely, I would prepare various levels of some activities. What I mean is that I would create different versions of the same worksheet or board game in order to answer the individual needs of each child. Why have I thought about it? Because during my classes I have realized that some exercises e.g. board game and worksheet with subtraction were too difficult for two kids in the classroom - instead of giving them numbers I could have given them examples with e.g. balls or circles to count. Moreover, I had a few situations when two or three learners ended the task quicker than others and I did not have anything additional for them. Therefore, in the future I have to remember about preparing more activities for so - called fast - finishers to prevent boredom and make them still interested in the lesson.